We’ve been without a good vacuum for awhile now (I’ve had to use either the tiny handheld vacuum or the shop vac). The vacuum arrived in a million pieces so on Thursday after work I spent about an hour putting it together all by myself. I felt proud that I was able to do it AND it worked! You have no idea how excited I am about this vacuum (I’m weird, I know).

The other package I got was a giveaway from Nicole. I won a gift pack of Sun Chlorella. I’m looking forward to trying it and seeing some results. They claim to boost recovery and healing in the body.

Thursday was a rather gloomy day. I think it’s official: Fall has arrived in Portland. Some trees are starting to change colors, the weather is way cooler, and it’s so, so dark in the morning. On the way home from work I stopped at the Dave’s Killer Bread outlet store to pick up a loaf. I was craving my favorite Fall food:

Grilled cheese! YUM! I stopped eating grilled cheese sandwiches for a long time because I felt like they were too high in calories. Then I sat down and actually figured out how many calories were in a grilled cheese. They weren’t that bad!

I used Dave’s Killer Bread Potato Oat wheat bread and it was perfect. The cheese: colby jack shredded. Sweet mustard on the inside of the sandwich, butter on the outside. And don’t forget the pepper bacon.

It hit the spot on a dark, Autumn night. As a side I made us salads with chopped broccoli and sliced tomatoes from the garden.

My favorite combination dinner is tomato soup and grilled cheese. I see that in my future. Dinner was nice and comforting. And I was wearing a sweater too. Where the heck did summer go?? This colder weather may pose a problem for me trying to commute to work on my bike. I did buy a Groupon for a local cycling store (I think $20 for $50?) and I’m going to buy some cold weather gear to hopefully get me through it.

On Friday I came home to two more packages! The first:

I’d won Monica’s tea giveaway awhile ago and it arrived–complete with a very cool looking new tea carafe. We drink tons of iced tea so this is fantastic. I cannot wait to try the new carafe too. There’s a holder for the loose leaf tea so it’s less mess.

And finally, my business cards! Months ago I commissioned one of Michael’s coworkers to make me a logo and then I proceeded to procrastinate all year long. Still haven’t revamped my website but I do finally have the business cards. Not only that, I’d gotten a Living Social deal for the business cards so I got a fantastic price!

The Portland Century – Part 3

The Home Stretch

I definitely felt a sense of relief when we arrived at the Springwater Corridor. It was where we’ve done the bulk of our training and it felt familiar. I could mentally relax knowing how close we were from the finish.

Heading west on the Springwater Trail means two things: the wind is usually at our back and it’s slightly downhill. Which means we can make up a lot of time by going pretty fast on the trail. The only downside is that there are a lot of stops for roads/intersections.

Michael and I stayed pretty close together for most of this stretch. We were in a group with other cyclists.

For most of the ride there weren’t any issues with non-cyclists until the Springwater. There was some guy not participating in the Century on his bike who shouted something rude to the cyclists going by, but I didn’t hear what he said exactly. Then a bit later, we were trying to make the light at an intersection and we had 5 seconds left on the signal so we booked it. We made it through the light with enough time but some guy sitting in his car shouted rude comments at us. I thought that was weird and uncalled for, I mean he’d have to sit at that light anyways so why be a jerk? Who knows.

The final Rest Stop came up pretty quickly. I think it should have been placed closer to the end of the Springwater Trail because that’s where I needed it to be. More on that later. We stopped at the East Gresham Park to rest.

This Rest Stop had Hot Lips Pizza! I was not hungry but had a slice anyways. We found some shade to sit down in and I did some stretching.

After stretching and getting more water, we headed out on the rest of the trail. It was the home stretch, mentally I knew how much was left and I was excited.

My back was also starting to hurt. I tried doing lots of stretches while I was on the bike–every few minutes–but it was getting hard to sit still. I was feeling the fatigue in my lower back and my shoulders and neck.

We biked down the Springwater, through Sellwood, and passed Oaks Park. It was cool to be biking where my commute is.

We passed OMSI and I knew I needed to stop and stretch. I was thirsty. I was starting to get cranky and my back HURT. Michael and I stopped underneath a bridge in the shade. I was trying to stay positive and not give in to the Cranky-Pants-I’m-Crashing-Mentality. I could see it looming over me and I wanted to complete the Portland Century with a positive attitude–not like how I finished Reach the Beach or Hood to Coast last year (near tears). I stretched and drank my water (which was hot at this point–yuck) and Michael said his butt was hurting. We both agreed that 70 was the right distance for us–that neither of us were ready for the full 100 yet.

We continued on up SE Water Street in the bike lanes and then we had to wait for a train to go by. That meant another break.

The wait was probably 3 minutes or so. Then we continued on. We were heading East–which was annoying me because PSU was west! I had no idea where we were heading. We crossed a few streets and then the signs said to turn left. There was a group of us turning left together and we all had our arms out indicating as such. A car behind us decided he wasn’t going to wait and he sped up and cut us off–narrowly missing a girl right in front of me. She came within INCHES from being hit! Whoever that guy was, he’s an asshole! Grrr! We turned and looped around a few blocks and then the route took us over the Burnside Bridge.

I’ve never biked over the Burnside Bridge. The bike lanes were nice and wide. We looped around through downtown once we were off the bridge. We biked through the very congested Saturday Market area and then up to Broadway where we biked the last stretch of the course–uphill of course, and with lots of stops at lights. A car almost hit me. I had the right of way and apparently he wasn’t paying attention to the bike lane when he decided to turn right but he stopped just in time and I stopped on my bike. SIGH. People can be jerks to cyclists.

We arrived at PSU and we were finished. And here is where I have two complaints about the Portland Century. 1) There wasn’t a finish line that we crossed. It was anticlimactic to just be DONE. Where’s the banner to ride under?? and 2) There was no stinkin’ medal. I wanted a medal. I paid $70 for this ride, there should be a medal at the end of it. I know that’s petty but dammit, why not?

Portland Century Stats:

Time: 6:28 (with all the stops)Calories Burned: 3229Distance: 71.9 miles

First order of business: get our checked bags and change out of our sweaty spandex!

It felt so good to be in real clothes. The next order of business: BEER.

The salmon and chicken were a little dry but the food was decent and yes–I had two desserts!

We hung out at the finish line for about an hour. We relaxed, drank our beer and ate dinner. There was a band playing awful music, lots of people. We chatted with some guys that did the full 100 and then we ran into my friend Kristin. She volunteered for the event and rode the 33 Mile Route. (She’s also a runner and ran the Boston Marathon this year!) It was such a fun event! We had a blast and I was glad that I was able to enjoy the after party this time. I missed it at Reach the Beach because I crashed so hard and got hypothermia. That was not the case this time (it was 90 degrees!).

We headed home to shower. We were both truly exhausted and struggling to stay awake. Here are some final stats:

As you can see, our actual riding time was 5 hours, not 6.5. That 1.5 hours was sitting at lights and the rest stops. Also, our actual miles were 72.51 biked. That could just mean that we took a wrong turn at some point and got a few extra miles in. Our average speed was 14.4 mph. Michael thinks the elevation was off but I’m not sure.

What a cool app. I’m glad to see the actual stats from our ride to compare it to our training rides.